Ephesians 2 'LIFE IN CHRIST"
“LIFE IN CHRIST”
Ephesians 2
Taught by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday Evening, February 20, 2011
In Chapter One, Paul used the term, “In Christ, five times.
1:1: “Those who are faithful in Christ”.
1:10: “Suitable to the fullness of the times that is the summing of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth in Him.”
1:12: “The first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
1:19b-20: “in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.”
In Chapter two, Paul leads us deeper into Life In Christ.
Eph. 2:1: “”And you were dead in your trespasses and sin in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience”
Physical death is the separation of one’s soul from his body. Spiritual death is the separation of one’s soul from God. Everything evil is isolated from God by virtue of His absolute holiness. Prior to salvation we all existed in a death environment where satan had us enslaved through our evil thoughts and deeds. Dead things cannot give life to themselves; neither can evil man make himself holy. Thus we were all trapped, needing help from the outside. Jesus’ resurrection power rescues us from this death state. How? By union with Christ. The life is actually His. We get it by being joined to Him.
Paul uses the Greek word here for air to picture satan’s presence and proximity to our souls. With his agents, he operates just beyond the wall of the flesh, unseen, unfelt---as close as the air we breathe. His influence today, as always, is like a dark cloud surrounding the human spirit, penetrating and motivating the fallen disobedient nature of mankind.
All of us were bound in that state at one time, responding only to the satanically inspired impulses of our evil natures, so that we too were led to obey the cravings of our instincts and went about satisfying the longings of our flesh.
2:4-7: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). And raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”.
But God, those two words mark the turning point for men. All are headed for hell until God intervenes. His action is prompted by love.
“That which is in heaven will be heavenly on earth.” (written out in a vision of the night to Carolyn Sissom). The word for ages means the eternal world without end. The unsaved mind cannot comprehend this, for we just barely do ourselves. Our literal union in Christ brings many things into actuality which we cannot now behold. They are spiritual realities unimaginable by the senses. It is by virtue of our being “In Christ” that we accept our authority in the spiritual realm. By faith we understand that we have been exalted to the same spiritual posture as Jesus, Who is seated at the right hand of God. That’s a long way from our former slavery in the kingdom of satan. To sit in the presence of the Great King is again a fantastic honor which further bespeaks the astonishing dignity of redeemed man. What is man that he can be raised to such heights? There we shall forever remain as living testimonies to His matchless grace, the objects of His limitless kindness.
The most astonishing thing heaven has ever seen was its king stripping Himself of His outward royalty to step down into the human stream. There He suffered spiteful indignities and death to rescue us. His sacrifice is never to be forgotten, for you and I become living monuments to His amazing grace.
2:8-10: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not as a result of works that no one should boast.
The Holy Spirit through Paul is making it perfectly clear that man’s rescue and exaltation to such heights is something that God has done by Himself. Be clear on this---it is by grace that you have been saved. True, faith was the instrument, but even so, salvation itself is something in which you and I have had no part. It is the gift of God, and not the result of any human effort. Consequently there is no room for any human pride.
Even the ability to exercise faith in Christ requires a ‘pre-salvation work’ of the Holy Spirit (John 6:44). “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
The enslavement by Satan, through the old nature, is such that God’s Spirit must enable us to accept the free gift in Christ. While He does this for all men, since there is “no respect of persons with God,” yet “ not all men will exercise faith” (2 Thess. 3:2)”that we may be delivered from perverse and evil men, for not all have faith.”
2:10: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Once more the genius of God bursts forth. Instead of destroying our old natures, He uses them. As soon as a man is saved, he owns two natures, old (inherited from Adam) and new (Christ’s own). It is the struggle between these two natures that makes for Christian growth. Maturity comes as we decide more and more for Christ and less for self, something which is impossible apart from owning two natures. Inasmuch as the old nature drops off at physical death, the Christian himself is referred to as a “new creature” in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).
2: 11-13: “Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by the so-called Circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.”
Until the advent of Christ, salvation was available only through the nation of Israel. True, they failed miserably in the task of being a “light unto the Gentiles.” Nonetheless pagans could be saved only as they joined the commonwealth of Israel and embraced the God of the Jews. It was thus Ruth first said, “Thy people shall be my people,” and then “thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16). This was the stated order. There was no other way. Paul says remember that while considering what Christ has done for you.
But now through your union with Christ Jesus, you were once outside the wall have been brought inside by the blood of Christ. For Christ Himself has brought us all to peace with God. In cancelling the Jewish-Gentile distinctions and removing the wall that separated us, He put us all on the same basis with respect to the Lord.
The instant Jesus died and rose again, the Jewish Law with all of it rules and decrees was abolished. With those gone, there were no longer two classes. In his death, He brought into being a new family, composed of Jews and Gentiles alike, thereby ending the religious hostility and making peace. In reconciling both to God through His cross and bringing them into the one family, He eliminated the reason for the hostility that existed. Now there is no longer any cause for antagonism.
2:15-16: “by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.”
The power of this scripture alone should reconcile Jew and Arab. However, they can only be reconciled if they receive Jesus Christ as their God. The Jewish laws, not the moral law of God which stands forever, were the ones abolished. They regulated the behavior of the nation Israel which was commissioned to enact on the world stage the great drama of the coming Messiah and His sacrifice for the sins of the world. They did this for 1500 years, but once the Sacrifice Himself appeared, the Jew-Gentile separation, which was a part of that drama, ended with it.
2:16-18: and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.”
He came with great tidings for both. Those who were outside the wall and those inside heard the same announcement---the war is over!! This is why Christians have so much love for the Jew. We have been reconciled through His Grace and the enemity no longer exists in the heart of a Christian toward a Jew. However, until the Jew and the Arab are reconciled in Christ, the war still rages. There is no peace separate from Jesus Christ.
The O. T. tabernacle drama pictured Christ’s complete work. “That which is in heaven, will be heavenly on earth.” The rending of the temple veil indicated that His torn body had just opened the way into heaven. No longer were priests, mediators, or ceremonial formulas required for us to reach the Father. Now, by means of our new holy natures, we are personally welcome in His presence. Our Spirits become the sanctuary. Our son ship in Christ gives us the right to be there and our Spirit-imparted holiness allows us to relax and feel at home. We can even live in God’s presence.
Consequently we Gentiles are no longer outsiders and foreigners, but fellow saints with all true believers and members of God’s one family. The church is built not only upon the apostles, but all the prophets, with Jesus Christ the Chief Cornerstone.
The following is paraphrased from Feast of Tabernacles by: George H. Warnock:
“The prophets wrote primarily of the grace that was to come unto us, and the glory that was to follow Christ’s sufferings. Peter goes so far as to saying in 1 Pet. 1: 9-12, that the prophets were not ministering to their day and age, but unto us...” and the things they prophesied are now proclaimed unto the saints under the anointing of the Holy Ghost. This is what he says, “receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when (He) testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven: which things the angels desire to look into…
The apostles in their writings refer constantly to the Old Testament to prove the truths they are declaring to the Church, and make innumerable quotations from all portions of the Law and the Prophets to confirm their doctrines of Christ and the Church. Not do they make any apologies whatsoever, or even intimate that they are taking an Old Testament Scripture out of its context. Therefore if it should seem strange to some that we should quote from the Law and the Prophets to confirm some spiritual truth concerning the Body of Christ, the apostles applied the Old Testament to the Church which Christ built, and applied to spiritual Israel what the prophets originally prophesied concerning natural Israel…
The New Testament is literally filled with direct quotations from the Old, by way of establishing Church truth.” (paraphrased from The Feast of Tabernacles by: George H. Warnock)
In Ephesians 2:20, the prophets of old, who declared essentially the same message as the apostles, are included in the building of the Lord’s church. The whole structure is composed of people, beautifully fitted together in Christ. It is a growing, Holy temple in the Lord (In Christ).
Because of our union in Christ, we too are being molded into our place along with the others. Together we are a house in which God lives through His Spirit.
The Old Testament Prophets and the Apostles have their place in this building. We are often so concerned with our status in the earthly church. What have we built that is lasting in that living organism of the Lord’s eternal church?
As the lives of God’s people blossom, it becomes lovelier. No heathen god ever had a living temple! Dead gods can’t use a living temple. Only the Living God could even dwell in such a thing! Thus by Grace those of us who are alive in Christ through the very life of Jesus provided God with a living house bonding souls together. It is this which forms the basis of Paul’s plea for christina unity. He sees the loveliness of God’s house marred when Christians divide over small matters and fail to love one another. A God of love needs a living house of love.
Taught by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from N.A.S. with text paraphrased from C.S. Lovett’s Lights on Ephesians and quotes from The Feast of Tabernacles by: George H. Warnock.